


23/01/2019: Shipwrecked

by pop_incognito



Series: 365 Drabbles [23]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Love at First Sight, M/M, Merman!Hiyori, shipwrecked
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-15 01:25:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17519540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pop_incognito/pseuds/pop_incognito
Summary: Ikuya is shipwrecked and dragged to safety by a mysterious creature.





	23/01/2019: Shipwrecked

**Author's Note:**

> Who wants a Little Mermaid AU? There's going to be more parts of this as the year goes on, very slowly because I'm not quite committed to it enough to write a full story for it. Including tomorrow's story, actually, if my planning goes along the way I want it to. Hope you all enjoy it!

Ikuya coughs himself violently back into consciousness, floundering in the shallow waves as his body fights to get the water out of his lungs. His eyes sting, from sand, salt, and blood. He’s chilled to the bone from lying in the shallow water for so many hours. Spluttering, Ikuya manages to draw breath and rolls onto his hands and knees, splashing his face with more frigid seawater to wash the blood off. “Natsuya?” He staggers to his feet, water sliding off him in sheets as his clothing sticks to his skin. “Natsuya, where are you?” he croaks out weakly, squinting against the sun in search of his older brother.

Nothing.

He sees nothing by clear waters, white sand, and the endless stretch of blue sky above. Out in the distance, he can see the plume of dark smoke staining the horizon from the remains of the ship, charred pieces of wood floating in the waves beyond the reed. Ikuya feels his heart clench. How had he survived the crash? Where was Natsuya? He turns to look at the beach hopefully. Again, nothing. He has washed up on what appears to be a tiny island in the middle of a reef, nothing more than a strip of sand dotted with trees and a small cave in the middle of the ocean.

No sign of Natsuya.

Pulling himself of the surf, already feeling the pull of sunburned skin, Ikuya hobble into the shade of the cave, collapsing on the smooth stone floor with a desperate sob. How had he even reached the island? Somehow, Ikuya drifts into a deep sleep, lulled by faint strains of imagined singing, and his dreams are filled with golden eyes and strange bronze fish, long fingers caressing his face, and Natsuya floating above him in the water, hands stretching down towards Ikuya.

A slap of cold water to the face startles Ikuya awake, and he notices that the sun has disappeared behind the cave, casting cool grey shadows across the sand. Ikuya looks around for the source of the water, but sees no one and nothing in sight. Resisting the urge to cry, Ikuya peers around the cave, mentally berating himself for entering it without checking it for inhabitants. He decides it is best to leave while he is still alive, and Ikuya runs from the cave on shaking legs, bare feet sinking into the pristine sand until the foamy waves are brushing his toes.

The smoke from the ship has dissipated to a barely-there wisp of silver, an ugly mark against the unmarred sunset, and he can clearly see the wreckage now – a hulking, twisted mass of scorched wood slowly sinking into the see. There’s no way the rest of the crew could have survived that, but Natsuya could have! He had been standing on the bow with Ikuya, and they had dived into the waves together.

Ikuya walks out into the reef in a daze, the water reaching his ankles, and then his knees. By the time he is submerged to waist level, Ikuya’s feet are scraping the rocks that form the wall of the reef. He climbs up to sit on one, staring out at the vast ocean laid out before him, hoping to catch a glimpse of his brother. There is not a single scrap of land in sight. Ikuya is completely marooned on his tiny, possibly inhabited island, with no way of signalling anyone or finding his way to larger land.

With a heavy heart, Ikuya turns to slide off the rock. Movement out of the corner of his eye stalls him, a flash of bronze disappearing behind a crop of pale pink stones jutting out of the reef bed. Curious, and more than a little scared, Ikuya wades over to the stones. He can hear something splashing the water on the other side, and he carefully pulls himself up onto the largest one, peering over the edge.

He is greeted by wide golden eyes, and Ikuya nearly falls back into the water in shock, because a real-life merman is laid out before Ikuya in the shallow reef. Iridescent caudal fins are trapped between two rocks from the creature’s hasty dive out of Ikuya’s view. Ikuya’s mouth drops open as he rakes his eyes over translucent skin, marked all over with sea green spots and stripes, and lines of black tattoos. The merman has gill slits on his slender neck, and a pointed face, wild brown hair threaded with shells and slick with water as he peers up at Ikuya with terrified eyes. His well-muscled chest is heaving, a toned stomach leading into a long, beautiful bronze tail.

Ikuya lies on the rocks and stares and stares and stares at the merman, all the old sea tales raging around in his head, until the merman makes a pained noise high in the back of his throat, and Ikuya’s attention snaps to the thin tendrils of shimmering green blood dripping into the water from the fins still wedged between the pink stones. Balking, Ikuya scoots further down the rocks and reaches between them to free the merman’s tail fins.

With a flash of movement, clawed, webbed hands grip his arms, and all Ikuya can think is, ‘Fuck, they do eat people’, his entire life flashing before his eyes. But death never comes, and Ikuya cracks his eyes open. The merman is staring at him with salty tears tracking down his cheeks. “Hurt,” he gurgles, the word sounding foreign between his wickedly sharp teeth. “Stop. Hurt.”

Ikuya realises that the merman thinks that Ikuya is going to hurt him, and Ikuya quickly shakes his head. “I’m going to set you free,” he croaks, his voice raw from the sea water. “It won’t hurt anymore.”

Biting his lip with cruel, sharp teeth, the merman tentatively releases Ikuya’s arms. Slowly, Ikuya moves his hands back to the merman’s tail, his fingers brushing bronze scales gently, before he pushes his hand between the rocks again and carefully slides the fins out from where they have been caught on a spur of dry coral.

“There,” Ikuya whispers, eyes lingering with dismay on the jagged tear through one fin. “Oh,” he says, wiping some of the strange blood away. “I’m so sorry.”

Tenderly, the merman edges his tail under the surface of the water. “Is okay,” he chirps to Ikuya, flexing his fins to show the tear already healing over. His voice is high, cracking over the breaks in his words, and Ikuya imagines that the human language is a strange thing for the merman to be using. He wonders how they communicate with each other under water. “Am glad you still live. Could not tell when dragged you onto island.”

Ikuya blinks. This merman… is the one who pulled him to safety on the island? “You saved me?” he asks, almost reverently. The merman nods, and Ikuya spies the fanned ridges of his ears peaking out from under his hair. “I… thank you,” Ikuya says sincerely. “Do you have a name?”

The merman points to his chest. “Am called Hiyori,” he says quietly, and the frown on his face tells Ikuya that his name doesn’t sound right when spoken the human way.

“Thank you for saving my life, Hiyori,” Ikuya says, and never has he wanted to touch something so badly as much as he wants to touch the beautiful merman in front of him.

“Other human is with the mother fish,” Hiyori tells Ikuya, turning in the water so his chest is pressed to the rock Ikuya is still laying on. “Will come for you when his injuries are healed.”

Ikuya blinks. “Other human?” His eyes widen. “My brother?! He’s alive?!” Ikuya pauses, suddenly hesitant. “Are you sure it’s him?”

Nodding, Hiyori reaches up to cup Ikuya’s face. “Has same eyes,” he says, and then clicks his tongue. “Not as pretty though.” The claw of his thumb brushes over Ikuya’s cheek tenderly and Ikuya finds himself leaning closer. “Like sea jewel.”

Ikuya feels his face heat up even more underneath his sunburn, slightly disbelieving that this literal artwork of a creature is calling any part of Ikuya ‘pretty’. He finds that he is quite okay with staying on this island with Hiyori until Natsuya is returned to him. “Thank you,” he says again.

“So pretty,” Hiyori purrs, and he brushes his lips over Ikuya’s.

Ikuya is _more_ than okay with staying on this island.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment and kudos!


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